Advanced Transport Modelling in a Microelectronics Company: Status and Perspectives

Abstract

The currently used TCAD transport modelling tools for semiconductor device simulation are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the performance and reliability issues relating to CMOS and non volatile memory devices. The different methods for approximating the solution of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) are compared, and their suitability for the high energy transport regime simulation is analyzed. Examples of the application of device simulations to the study the hot carrier reliability of CMOS transistors and charge carriers injection in non-volatile memory cell programming cycles are shown. The importance of proper definition and adaptation of the discretization grid is pointed out, and the implications of quantum effects in state-of-the-art deep submicron devices are discussed.